“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” - George W. Bush

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Federalist 29 and the AK- 47 in the hands of any asshole

What America’s gun fanatics won’t tell you

Alexander Hamilton said a “well-regulated militia” would help safeguard the freedom of the new republic because it would make the creation of a professional, mercenary army “unnecessary.”MARKETWATCH

Can we please stop pretending that the Second Amendment contains an unfettered right for everyone to buy a gun? It doesn’t, and it never has. The claims made by the small number of extremists, before and after the Orlando, Fla., massacre, are based on a deliberate lie.

The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution doesn’t just say Congress shall not infringe the right to “keep and bear arms.” It specifically says that right exists in order to maintain “a well-regulated militia.” Even the late conservative Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia admitted those words weren’t in there by accident. Oh, and the Constitution doesn’t just say a “militia.” It says a “well-regulated” militia.

What did the Founding Fathers mean by that? We don’t have to guess because they told us. In Federalist No. 29 of the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton explained at great length precisely what a “well-regulated militia” was, why the Founding Fathers thought we needed one, and why they wanted to protect it from being disarmed by the federal government.

The Second Amendment is an instrument of government. It’s not about hunting or gun collecting or carrying your pistol into the saloon.

And there’s a reason absolutely no gun extremist will ever direct you to that 1788 essay because it blows their baloney into a million pieces.

A “well-regulated militia” didn’t mean guys who read Soldier of Fortune magazine running around in the woods with AK-47s and warpaint on their faces. It basically meant what today we call the National Guard.

It should be a properly constituted, ordered and drilled (“well-regulated”) military force, organized state by state, explained Hamilton. Each state militia should be a “select corps,” “well-trained” and able to perform all the “operations of an army.” The militia needed “uniformity in … organization and discipline,” wrote Hamilton, so that it could operate like a proper army “in camp and field,” and so that it could gain the “essential … degree of proficiency in military functions.” And although it was organized state by state, it needed to be under the explicit control of the national government. The “well-regulated militia” was under the command of the president. It was “the military arm” of the government.

The one big difference between this militia and a professional army? It shouldn’t be made up of full-time professional soldiers, said the Founding Fathers. Such soldiers could be used against the people as King George had used his mercenary Redcoats. Instead, the American republic should make up its military force from part-time volunteers drawn from regular citizens. Such men would be less likely to turn on the population.

And the creation of this “well-regulated militia,” aka the National Guard, would help safeguard the freedom of the new republic because it would make the creation of a professional, mercenary army “unnecessary,” wrote Hamilton. “This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it,” he wrote.

That was the point. And that was why they wanted to make sure it couldn’t be disarmed by the federal government: So a future “tyrant” couldn’t disarm the National Guard, and then use a mercenary army to impose martial law.

Deadliest American mass shootings

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The Founding Fathers didn’t call the republic’s new force an “army” because that term more than two centuries ago called to mind the British army, foreign mercenaries, tyrants and kings. So they said “militia” instead. But they meant a real body. Hamilton was scathing about the idea that the “militia” could just mean every Bob, Billy and Benjamin with his musket. Such amateurs would stand no chance in modern warfare against professionals, he wrote. And requiring every citizen to become a professional would be ridiculous, he said. It would be “a real grievance to the people, and a serious public inconvenience and loss,” he wrote. Taking people away from their work in order to train them “would form an annual deduction from the productive labor of the country.”

The Second Amendment is an instrument of government. It’s not about hunting or gun collecting or carrying your pistol into the saloon. The Founding Fathers left it up to us to pass sensible laws about all these things. The Constitution is about government.

Today we have a professional army, anyway. Military matters have become so complex that no part-time soldiers could do it all. So you could argue that makes the Second Amendment null and void, like the parts in the Constitution about slaves and Indians being counted as “three-fifths” of a person in the Census.

But even if you still want to defend the Second Amendment, it should apply only to those who volunteer to join the “select corps” of their National Guard, undergo rigorous training to attain “proficiency in military functions” and perform the “operations of an army,” serve as ordered under the ultimate command of the president and be subject to military discipline.

So if you’re running around waving your AK-47 under the Second Amendment, and you haven’t shown up yet at your local National Guard headquarters, you’re not a “patriot.” You’re a deserter.

More from MarketWatch

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Concerning the MilitiaFrom the Daily Advertiser.Thursday, January 10, 1788

Author: Alexander Hamilton

To the People of the State of New York:

THE power of regulating the militia, and of commanding its services in times of insurrection and invasion are natural incidents to the duties of superintending the common defense, and of watching over the internal peace of the Confederacy.

It requires no skill in the science of war to discern that uniformity in the organization and discipline of the militia would be attended with the most beneficial effects, whenever they were called into service for the public defense. It would enable them to discharge the duties of the camp and of the field with mutual intelligence and concert an advantage of peculiar moment in the operations of an army; and it would fit them much sooner to acquire the degree of proficiency in military functions which would be essential to their usefulness. This desirable uniformity can only be accomplished by confiding the regulation of the militia to the direction of the national authority. It is, therefore, with the most evident propriety, that the plan of the convention proposes to empower the Union "to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, RESERVING TO THE STATES RESPECTIVELY THE APPOINTMENT OF THE OFFICERS, AND THE AUTHORITY OF TRAINING THE MILITIA ACCORDING TO THE DISCIPLINE PRESCRIBED BY CONGRESS."

Of the different grounds which have been taken in opposition to the plan of the convention, there is none that was so little to have been expected, or is so untenable in itself, as the one from which this particular provision has been attacked. If a well-regulated militia be the most natural defense of a free country, it ought certainly to be under the regulation and at the disposal of that body which is constituted the guardian of the national security. If standing armies are dangerous to liberty, an efficacious power over the militia, in the body to whose care the protection of the State is committed, ought, as far as possible, to take away the inducement and the pretext to such unfriendly institutions. If the federal government can command the aid of the militia in those emergencies which call for the military arm in support of the civil magistrate, it can the better dispense with the employment of a different kind of force. If it cannot avail itself of the former, it will be obliged to recur to the latter. To render an army unnecessary, will be a more certain method of preventing its existence than a thousand prohibitions upon paper.

In order to cast an odium upon the power of calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, it has been remarked that there is nowhere any provision in the proposed Constitution for calling out the POSSE COMITATUS, to assist the magistrate in the execution of his duty, whence it has been inferred, that military force was intended to be his only auxiliary. There is a striking incoherence in the objections which have appeared, and sometimes even from the same quarter, not much calculated to inspire a very favorable opinion of the sincerity or fair dealing of their authors. The same persons who tell us in one breath, that the powers of the federal government will be despotic and unlimited, inform us in the next, that it has not authority sufficient even to call out the POSSE COMITATUS. The latter, fortunately, is as much short of the truth as the former exceeds it. It would be as absurd to doubt, that a right to pass all laws NECESSARY AND PROPER to execute its declared powers, would include that of requiring the assistance of the citizens to the officers who may be intrusted with the execution of those laws, as it would be to believe, that a right to enact laws necessary and proper for the imposition and collection of taxes would involve that of varying the rules of descent and of the alienation of landed property, or of abolishing the trial by jury in cases relating to it. It being therefore evident that the supposition of a want of power to require the aid of the POSSE COMITATUS is entirely destitute of color, it will follow, that the conclusion which has been drawn from it, in its application to the authority of the federal government over the militia, is as uncandid as it is illogical. What reason could there be to infer, that force was intended to be the sole instrument of authority, merely because there is a power to make use of it when necessary? What shall we think of the motives which could induce men of sense to reason in this manner? How shall we prevent a conflict between charity and judgment?

By a curious refinement upon the spirit of republican jealousy, we are even taught to apprehend danger from the militia itself, in the hands of the federal government. It is observed that select corps may be formed, composed of the young and ardent, who may be rendered subservient to the views of arbitrary power. What plan for the regulation of the militia may be pursued by the national government, is impossible to be foreseen. But so far from viewing the matter in the same light with those who object to select corps as dangerous, were the Constitution ratified, and were I to deliver my sentiments to a member of the federal legislature from this State on the subject of a militia establishment, I should hold to him, in substance, the following discourse:

"The project of disciplining all the militia of the United States is as futile as it would be injurious, if it were capable of being carried into execution. A tolerable expertness in military movements is a business that requires time and practice. It is not a day, or even a week, that will suffice for the attainment of it. To oblige the great body of the yeomanry, and of the other classes of the citizens, to be under arms for the purpose of going through military exercises and evolutions, as often as might be necessary to acquire the degree of perfection which would entitle them to the character of a well-regulated militia, would be a real grievance to the people, and a serious public inconvenience and loss. It would form an annual deduction from the productive labor of the country, to an amount which, calculating upon the present numbers of the people, would not fall far short of the whole expense of the civil establishments of all the States. To attempt a thing which would abridge the mass of labor and industry to so considerable an extent, would be unwise: and the experiment, if made, could not succeed, because it would not long be endured. Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped; and in order to see that this be not neglected, it will be necessary to assemble them once or twice in the course of a year.

"But though the scheme of disciplining the whole nation must be abandoned as mischievous or impracticable; yet it is a matter of the utmost importance that a well-digested plan should, as soon as possible, be adopted for the proper establishment of the militia. The attention of the government ought particularly to be directed to the formation of a select corps of moderate extent, upon such principles as will really fit them for service in case of need. By thus circumscribing the plan, it will be possible to have an excellent body of well-trained militia, ready to take the field whenever the defense of the State shall require it. This will not only lessen the call for military establishments, but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist."

Thus differently from the adversaries of the proposed Constitution should I reason on the same subject, deducing arguments of safety from the very sources which they represent as fraught with danger and perdition. But how the national legislature may reason on the point, is a thing which neither they nor I can foresee.

There is something so far-fetched and so extravagant in the idea of danger to liberty from the militia, that one is at a loss whether to treat it with gravity or with raillery; whether to consider it as a mere trial of skill, like the paradoxes of rhetoricians; as a disingenuous artifice to instil prejudices at any price; or as the serious offspring of political fanaticism. Where in the name of common-sense, are our fears to end if we may not trust our sons, our brothers, our neighbors, our fellow-citizens? What shadow of danger can there be from men who are daily mingling with the rest of their countrymen and who participate with them in the same feelings, sentiments, habits and interests? What reasonable cause of apprehension can be inferred from a power in the Union to prescribe regulations for the militia, and to command its services when necessary, while the particular States are to have the SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE APPOINTMENT OF THE OFFICERS? If it were possible seriously to indulge a jealousy of the militia upon any conceivable establishment under the federal government, the circumstance of the officers being in the appointment of the States ought at once to extinguish it. There can be no doubt that this circumstance will always secure to them a preponderating influence over the militia.

In reading many of the publications against the Constitution, a man is apt to imagine that he is perusing some ill-written tale or romance, which instead of natural and agreeable images, exhibits to the mind nothing but frightful and distorted shapes "Gorgons, hydras, and chimeras dire"; discoloring and disfiguring whatever it represents, and transforming everything it touches into a monster.

A sample of this is to be observed in the exaggerated and improbable suggestions which have taken place respecting the power of calling for the services of the militia. That of New Hampshire is to be marched to Georgia, of Georgia to New Hampshire, of New York to Kentucky, and of Kentucky to Lake Champlain. Nay, the debts due to the French and Dutch are to be paid in militiamen instead of louis d'ors and ducats. At one moment there is to be a large army to lay prostrate the liberties of the people; at another moment the militia of Virginia are to be dragged from their homes five or six hundred miles, to tame the republican contumacy of Massachusetts; and that of Massachusetts is to be transported an equal distance to subdue the refractory haughtiness of the aristocratic Virginians. Do the persons who rave at this rate imagine that their art or their eloquence can impose any conceits or absurdities upon the people of America for infallible truths?

If there should be an army to be made use of as the engine of despotism, what need of the militia? If there should be no army, whither would the militia, irritated by being called upon to undertake a distant and hopeless expedition, for the purpose of riveting the chains of slavery upon a part of their countrymen, direct their course, but to the seat of the tyrants, who had meditated so foolish as well as so wicked a project, to crush them in their imagined intrenchments of power, and to make them an example of the just vengeance of an abused and incensed people? Is this the way in which usurpers stride to dominion over a numerous and enlightened nation? Do they begin by exciting the detestation of the very instruments of their intended usurpations? Do they usually commence their career by wanton and disgustful acts of power, calculated to answer no end, but to draw upon themselves universal hatred and execration? Are suppositions of this sort the sober admonitions of discerning patriots to a discerning people? Or are they the inflammatory ravings of incendiaries or distempered enthusiasts? If we were even to suppose the national rulers actuated by the most ungovernable ambition, it is impossible to believe that they would employ such preposterous means to accomplish their designs.

In times of insurrection, or invasion, it would be natural and proper that the militia of a neighboring State should be marched into another, to resist a common enemy, or to guard the republic against the violence of faction or sedition. This was frequently the case, in respect to the first object, in the course of the late war; and this mutual succor is, indeed, a principal end of our political association. If the power of affording it be placed under the direction of the Union, there will be no danger of a supine and listless inattention to the dangers of a neighbor, till its near approach had superadded the incitements of selfpreservation to the too feeble impulses of duty and sympathy.

The Second Amendment provides Americans a fundamental right to bear arms that cannot be violated by state and local governments, the Supreme Court ruled Monday in a long-sought victory for gun rights advocates.

Supreme Court expands gun rights

The 5 to 4 decision does not strike down any gun-control laws, nor does it elaborate on what kind of laws would offend the Constitution. One justice predicted that an "avalanche" of lawsuits would be filed across the country asking federal judges to define the boundaries of gun ownership and government regulation.

But Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who wrote the opinion for the court's dominant conservatives, said: "It is clear that the Framers . . . counted the right to keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty."

The decision extended the court's 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller that "the Second Amendment protects a personal right to keep and bear arms for lawful purposes, most notably for self-defense within the home."....

So the relevant point you take away from the article is the author got the gun model wrong? ...and you haven’t nor do you have the intellectual curiosity to read what Hamilton actually wrote. Just wait for further instructions and continue to confirm your prejudices from your usual sources.

I have no problem with any weapon that has seven rounds or less. I have owned guns all my life.

I never need more than two rounds to kill anything.

I was in the military and trained and qualified as a marksman. I served on over a dozen military bases and every one of them required personal arms to be stored in the armory.

Every duty station had semi-automatic long guns and they were always under lock and key.

Please explain to me what any asshole, not wearing a military uniform needs an AK-47 or any other semi or automatic weapon capable of firing over 700 rounds per minute. Why does anyone, not in a military uniform need a 30 round magazine or ten of them?

Why does anyone need more than one box of ammunition?

In your wettest of dreams, you think you will be able to fend off any US military force with your Rambo gear?

deuce asks all innocent like: Why does anyone need more than one box of ammunition?

I have guns and ammo to prevent jew haters from killing me and mine. And If I don't use it? My grandkids will have it.

you have taught me well to not trust people like you and yours and someday, when your blood libel and accusations against Jews in America as "Israel firsters" reaches fertile ground, just like in pre ww2 germany, I will be ready for the fight..

If I hunted in Grizzly country I could make a case for a semi-automatic .308 with a five or six round magazine.

To try to justify a souped up .22 caliber, plastic peashooter with a 30 round magazine is absurd. It's good for nothing but shooting drunks in a small room.

I've always supported the 2nd. amendment, but selling easily converted semi-automatic weapons to people on the terrorist watch list, people with mental problems, and crazies with histories of domestic violence is insane.

We know the FBI investigated him twice and found no reason to pursue the inquiry or to keep him on a terrorist watch list.

So this person looks as though he was unbalanced and extremely prejudiced individual who bought two semi-automatic weapons only last week and then committed a mass shooting against a group against which he was bigoted.

“A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie.” — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

“Gun control? It’s the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters. I want you to have nothing. If I’m a bad guy, I’m always gonna have a gun. Safety locks? You’ll pull the trigger with a lock on, and I’ll pull the trigger. We’ll see who wins.” — Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, Mafia hit man

“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.” — The Dalai Lama, (May 15, 2001, The Seattle Times) speaking at the “Educating Heart Summit” in Portland, Oregon, when asked by a girl how to react when a shooter takes aim at a classmate

“I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”— Patrick Henry

Liberal elites are pushing the narrative that Christians and the NRA are as much to blame for Orlando as ISIS. But what if Mateen wasn't targeting gay people?

June 14, 2016 By John Daniel Davidson

....Mateen Said Nothing About Punishing Gay People

But what if Mateen didn’t specifically target a gay nightclub? What if the choice of the club and the victims were incidental to the killer’s intent? What if Mateen simply hated America, loved ISIS, considered himself an Islamist, and wanted to kill as many infidels as possible?

Why else would Mateen have scouted out other locations like Walt Disney World? Could it be that this, too, is a place where large numbers of people gather and where Mateen could have launched a surprise attack against unsuspecting civilians? Mateen’s wife, Noor Sahi Salman, reportedly told People that recently he had been “scouting Downtown Disney and Pulse [nightclub] for attacks.” Downtown Disney, reports People, doesn’t have a security and bag check at the entrance, unlike the other four Disney World theme parks.

If Mateen’s specific purpose had been to target not just Americans, but gay Americans, why did he never mention this in his 911 call? According to multiple law enforcement sources, Mateen called 911 about 30 minutes after launching his attack and pledged allegiance to ISIS and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

But that’s not all he said. Mateen claimed he was doing this in solidarity with Boston marathon bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, the first U.S. citizen to carry out a suicide attack in Syria. He also said he was protesting “the U.S. bombing in Syria and Iraq and the killing of women and children.”

No mention of carrying out an Islamic punishment for homosexuality, no mention of gay or lesbian Americans, no mention of his victims at all. Of course, it’s no secret that Islam condemns homosexuality, and that ISIS has executed gay men by throwing them from rooftops in Mosul. So it’s possible that Mateen decided to attack Pulse, a well-known gay nightclub, to carry out a punishment he believed Islam demands for homosexuality.

But in light of the going media narrative, that Mateen specifically targeted a gay nightclub because of his hatred of homosexuality, it seems a rather significant omission on his part. It would also undermine a plot that the Left and the mainstream media want desperately to advance. If the Orlando massacre turns out to be just another terrorist attack by a radical Muslim who hates the West and loves ISIS, what use would it be as a domestic political weapon?

Old Doug almost gets out of his usual passive aggressive persona but can’t quite pull it off. The closest he comes is…

Just like Kate Steinle was not the last citizen to be sacrificed on the alter of the lies and deceits perpetrated by Washington and cheered on, ignored, or denied by some (especially one) on this site.

No big deal, young Americans sacrificed for the big lie.

Sure Doug's a moron, but he's our moron. As if Obama using the term ‘Islamic terrorism’ would have made a jot of difference to the people in that Orlando club.

Pure idiocy.

Or this one…

You never know when some homophobic Christians are gonna bomb us with some homosexuals.

Evidently, ol Doug has forgotten about…

Wade Michael Page and the Sikh temple, or

Scott Roeder and the abortion center killing, or

Robert Lewis Dear and the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, or

Kyle Andrew Odom up in Coeur d'Alene.

And as for nutjobs, how about …

Adam Lanza who took out 20 first-graders and six adults in that school in Newton, or

James Holmes, The Joker, who with 82 casualties, dead and wounded, in that theater in Colorado had the record for a shooting incident before Mateen took it over in Orlando.

But hey, they weren’t Muslim.

Gee, I wonder if Obama mentioned that these guys were Christian terrorists? Might have saved some young Americans.

You could hear the laughter rolling across the blog. Ash made an astute observation when he said Bob lives for this stuff. If there were any chance at all he could still get a hard on it’s at times like these.

Bob lectures Rufus constantly about jumping to conclusions regarding motives and intent; yet, how many times have we seen posts like these…

Possible Q-Nit in [fill in the blank]

Only to be followed by…

Never Mind

As for Islamic terrorism itself, even though he’s been presented with data showing deaths from Islamic terrorism in the US is measured in tenths of 1% of all murders here, it still has him shitting bricks.

Hispanics named Jesus don't do lots of out and out terrorism.

Drugs, gang wars, that sort of thing, but not Christian terrorism

So it’s the term terrorism that has Bob crawling under his bed at night?

:o(

As if the parents of a kid shot in a drive by in Baltimore or Camden gives a shit whether he was killed by a terrorist or a gang banger. The results are the same, surprising, deadly, and final.

As for Christian terrorism, see my response to Doug above. I’ve already mentioned the percentages but a couple examples might help. In Chicago alone, in the first quarter, a 3 month period, there were 141 murders. That’s in one city. About a month ago, 9 people were killed in Detroit over a weekend. This is the kind of terror these people live with daily while Bob sits in his home in rural Idaho with his hair on fire.

By the way, we are still waiting for Bob to explain to us how Trump’s keep the Muslims out plan is actually going to work and be effective. We await the details.

And finally, there is WiO, the guy who just can’t help himself from bringing every conversation, even when it’s on something like gun control, back to Israel and the Palestinians…

Hell no, I want to fend of Jew hating jack holes like your friends the Fakisitnians.

By the way, I’ve asked these questions before and am still waiting for an answer…

[QuirkTue Jun 14, 12:48:00 AM EDT.

But quirk minimizes islamic terror in Israel....

just a few kids having fun with firecrackers...

I ask again if it is terrorism when the Palestinians do it is it also terrorism when the Israelis do it?

If not why not?

If yes, why does the IDF shoot dozens of Palestinian stone throwers but (as far as I can find) they shoot no Israeli rock throwers? I put up examples the other day to make my point.

Simple question, bub.]

Better answer it quickly. Your butt-buddy Bob seems to be faltering a little. So far, I haven’t seen him step up and say he is all for the IDF shooting these demonstrators or give excuses as to why they don’t deliver the same justice to Israeli Jews doing the same thing.

The most I’ve seen from him is his trying to change the subject by asking “What about Bethlehem”, a question that’s been answered here more than once but which he appears to be too stupid to understand or too lacking in intellectual curiosity to follow the links provided and check for himself.

Maybe, you can get Doug to jump on board. It would be interesting to see how he phrases that answer in passive aggressive.

..I love Doug’s accusing the entire blog with the exception of the three jackholes just mentioned of being sympathetic to Islamic terrorism. In Doug-World and WiO-World and Bob-World (a truly scary concept) the statement of simple facts equates to a manifesto in favor of jihad.Pity the nitwits of the world for they shall vote for Trump..

He loves publishing examples of Islamic terrorism,just as Ash pointed out, even to the point of listing those that don't really exist, positively panting in anticipation.

His lack of self-awareness.

It was a POSSIBLE Nit, you nit wit

Why would anyone bother with a 'possible' nit if he wasn't already getting a phantom hard on in anticipation.

And, you've seen a post like that only once, IIRC.

Bob using the term IIRC is almost like and oxymoron. His two most notable characteristics are taking comments or even single words out of the context and being unable or unwilling to remember a damn thing. A single example of the latter is his constant repetition of the question, "What about the Christians of Bethlehem?"

The question was answered for him a number of times and supporting links were provided. Yet, he continued asking the same question, even in one instance a few posts down from where it had been answered. I pointed it out. Ash pointed out. Yet, he refused to scroll up to check it out. That is an example of the intellectual curiosity we can expect from the farmer.

I won't get into the Polish comment. Nothing new there.

Bob is the typical hick only in his case one mentally crippled by the ravages of old age. He is a bigoted prick with a vacuous mind.

And, I've never accused you being explicitly 'pro-jihad', only of being anti-Semitic, as in your stupid statements about how the Israelis had annexed Gaza and were occupying it with IDF troops, you little turd.

• Four million Palestinians in the Occupied Territories lack the right to vote for the government that controls their lives through a military occupation.

In addition to controlling the borders, air space, water, tax revenues, and other vital matters pertaining to the Occupied Territories, Israel alone issues the identity cards that determine the ability of Palestinians to work and their freedom of movement.

• About 1.2 million Palestinian Israelis, who make up 20 percent, or one-fifth, of Israel’s population, have second-class citizenship within Israel, ... ... which defines itself as a Jewish state rather than a state for all its citizens.

More than 20 provisions of Israel’s principal laws discriminate, either directly or indirectly, against non-Jews, according to Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Rights in Israel.

Millions of Palestinians remain refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere, unable to return to their former homes ...... and land in present-day Israel.

Even though the right of return for refugees is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Breaking News »Senior member of Hamas military wing defects to Israel DEBKAfile June 14, 2016, 10:28 PM (IDT)The Internet site of the official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, Al-Hayat al-Jadida, reported Tuesday that a senior member of the Izaddin al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas in Gaza, has defected to Israel. According to the brief Arabic-language report, the family of Bassam Mahmoud Baraka received an official message from representatives of the Red Cross that their son had turned himself in to the Israeli authorities near the Gaza border fence, and that he is now in the hands of Israel

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2016 — U.S. Apache helicopters have entered the fight in Iraq against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters yesterday.

"Commanders have used the Apache capability that we positioned there and that [President Barack Obama] authorized them to use some months ago," Carter said as he traveled to Brussels for meetings with his fellow NATO defense ministers.

.An ISIL target in Iraq was destroyed in an Apache strike, Carter said, noting this is the "first time that it's been called into action, and effectively" in the ISIL fight.

U.S. and Iraqi commanders decided the aircraft "could be effective in helping those forces that are positioning themselves for the two-forked envelopment of Mosul," Carter said.

"That's what it was used for -- to help them along their way," he added.

The June 12 strike was in support of Iraqi security forces operating in the Tigris River Valley, a Defense Department spokesman said, adding that the strike was vetted and approved through the same process the coalition uses for all strikes.

WASHINGTON — F.B.I. investigators suspect the wife of the Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, might have been aware that he was plotting an attack, and the agency is trying to determine her level of involvement, a senior law enforcement official said Tuesday.

The wife, Noor Zahi Salman, told the F.B.I. that she had driven him to the Pulse nightclub at some point before the attack and that she had also been with him when he purchased ammunition, the official said. But she also said she had tried to talk him out of waging an attack, the official said.

Her statements were first reported by NBC News.

“There’s an indication that she was with him in certain parts of the process, and we’re sorting through it,”

I didn't waste my time wading through all of Juan Coles BS here, but perhaps he IS full of shit like I posited?

Mateen's twin trips to Saudi Arabia raise suspicions

Orlando gunman Omar Mateen’s two trips to Saudi Arabia, one of which was a pricey package that included four-star accommodations and fancy meals, were highly unusual and may have been cover for terror training, according to experts.

The FBI is piecing together Mateen’s radical Islam roots, and the trips to Saudi Arabia could be a sign of his growing religious devotion. His stated reason for both the 2011 and 2012 trips was umrah, a Muslim pilgrimage to the Kingdom that is not as significant as the hajj, a trip all Muslims must make to Mecca at least once in their lives. Either or both of the trips could also have included a side trip.

“It's very possible for someone to take a trip to a country like Saudi Arabia and declare it as their destination when it is in actuality just a pit stop to a different country like Yemen,” said Ryan Mauro, national security analyst for Clarion Project, a New York-based research institute that tracks global terrorism. “Based on his blatant extremism and ties to a convicted Orlando imam known for facilitating international jihadists traveling, the strong likelihood is that these trips were not benign.”

Breaking News »Senior member of Hamas military wing defects to Israel DEBKAfile June 14, 2016, 10:28 PM (IDT)The Internet site of the official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, Al-Hayat al-Jadida, reported Tuesday that a senior member of the Izaddin al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas in Gaza, has defected to Israel. According to the brief Arabic-language report, the family of Bassam Mahmoud Baraka received an official message from representatives of the Red Cross that their son had turned himself in to the Israeli authorities near the Gaza border fence, and that he is now in the hands of Israel

A senior member of Hamas’ armed wing, Bassam Mahmoud Baraka, defected to Israel, according to a Haaretz report on Tuesday.

The report sources a number of different Fatah-affiliated news outlets claiming that Barak fled to Israel and that he has extensive knowledge of Gaza’s tunnels.

Baraka, the son of a Hamas judge, allegedly left home to conduct errands, but hasn’t returned since.

The Haaretz article said that he traveled to the border and turned himself in. He reportedly carried a laptop.

The Red Cross told Baraka's family in Gaza that he is in Israeli custody, according to the report.

The Fatah websites sourced in the Haaretz story claim that this does not mark the first time that Hamas members entered Israeli custody.

In May, a 17-year-old Hamas member captured by Israel allegedly divulged Gaza tunnel activities. He reportedly told Israel that Hamas has been digging tunnels for a planned attack as well as the location for emergency escape tunnels.

Israel’s internal security apparatus, Shin Bet, announced last week that a Hamas official arrested back in April provided information regarding how tunnels are dug. That person was arrested for crossing the Gaza fence and possessing two knives.

Tunnels were among the most feared weapons of Hamas fighters during the 2014 conflict.

Son Of Hamas Founder Speaks Out About Why He Defected And What Hamas Is Planning

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of a Hamas founder. He says he grew up hearing about what must be sacrificed for sake of their ideology. He was being groomed to take a leadership position.

But after years of living under the regime, Yousef defected. He embraced Christianity, and was disowned by his father, according the Times of Israel.

And now, he is speaking out about the truth of Hamas, and what they are trying to accomplish at the Gaza Strip. He spoke with CNN‘s Don Lemon about the organization’s value of human life.

via Times of Israel:

“Hamas does not care about the lives of Palestinians, does not care about the lives of Israelis, or Americans; they don’t care about their own lives,” Yousef said. “They consider dying for sake of their ideology a way of worship.”When asked about how Hamas could peacefully live together with Israel, Yousef said that option is not on the table for the organization – because they are aiming for more than just Israel.

via Times of Israel:

“Hamas is not seeking coexistence and compromise; Hamas is seeking conquest,” he added. “The destruction of the state of Israel is not the Hamas’ final destination.”

Hamas, Yousef asserted, wants to build an Islamic state “on the rubble of every other civilization.”

"Oh armies of the Islamic nation, we are about to enter the month of blessing and victories," Palestinian preacher Sheikh Ali Abu Ahmad declared of Ramadan in a May 20 address at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, exhorting Palestinians to Jew-killing. "Oh Allah, protect the Al-Aqsa mosque from the filth of the Jews. Oh Allah, annihilate all the Jews! Oh Allah, enable us to kill them!"

-- Near Kisik, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and suppressed an ISIL mortar position.

-- Near Mosul, three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL mortar system, an ISIL supply cache and an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Qayyarah, four strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and an ISIL headquarters and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL assembly area and two ISIL mortar systems and suppressed a separate ISIL tactical unit and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Ramadi, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and an ISIL fighting position.

Additionally, officials said, two strikes in Syria near Manbij that struck two ISIL tactical units on June 12 were not included in yesterday’s strike release.

Israel’s national water company has cut crucial water supplies to large areas of the occupied-West Bank, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians without access to safe drinking water during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Mekorot, the main supplier of water to Palestinian towns and cities, siphoned off water supplies to the municipality of Jenin, several Nablus villages and the city of Salfit and its surrounding villages.

Ayman Rabi, the executive director of the Palestinian Hydrology Group, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that in some areas people had not received water for more than 40 days.

"People are relying on purchasing water from water trucks or finding it from alternative sources such as springs and other filling points in their vicinity," he said.

"Families are having to live on two, three or 10 litres per capita per day," he said, adding that in some areas they had started rationing water.

The city of Jenin, which has a population of more than 40,000 people, said its water supplies had been cut by half, and warned it would hold Mekorot solely responsible for any tragedies resulting from water shortages during the hot summer months.

Mekorot did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment.

According to the UN, 7.5 litres per capita per day is the minimum requirement for most people under most conditions but in some areas of Palestine - where temperatures exceed 35 degrees celsius - the minimum requirement is much higher.

Since 1967, Israel has limited the water available to Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since its forces occupied the territories.

Israelis, including settlers, consume five times more water than Palestinians in the West Bank, 350 liters per person per day in Israel compared to 60 liters per Palestinian per day in the West Bank.

Collectively, the 22,000 residents of the Tulkarm camp in the northern West Bank have amassed $15.2 million in unpaid electric bills over at least 10 years, part of a yawning Palestinian power debt of $430 million that is at the core of the latest breakdown in relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

It is not a slip. There were no Israelis that moved into Palestine. They were European and Russian Jews. They defined the piece that they carved out of Palestine and called it the “Jewish “ State of Israel. The European Jews justified the taking by saying it was the ancient state of the “Jews” and they were moving in because they were “Jews”. They did not say, we are here because we are Poles or Russians. The Jewish Stae of Israel declared to the World that any “Jew” from anywhere had a right to come to Israel, not because they were anything else except Jews.

Are you so dense, so stupid that you think they would not notice that they were Jews takin their land and water?

You have told us a thousand times that Jews had a right to go there and Palestinians were fake because they are not Jews.

The Palestinian Authority government on Tuesday voted in favor of the PA's annual budget for 2014 and referred it to PA President Mahmoud Abbas for approval. Nearly half of the $4.2 billion budget will go to paying salaries for PA employees – a 4.9% increase compared to last year's budget.Feb 4, 2014

The Truth Behind the Palestinian Water Libelsby Prof. Haim GvirtzmanBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 238, February 24, 2014EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Water shortages in the Palestinian Authority are the result of Palestinian policies that deliberately waste water and destroy the regional water ecology. The Palestinians refuse to develop their own significant underground water resources, build a seawater desalination plant, fix massive leakage from their municipal water pipes, build sewage treatment plants, irrigate land with treated sewage effluents or modern water-saving devices, or bill their own citizens for consumer water usage, leading to enormous waste. At the same time, they drill illegally into Israel’s water resources, and send their sewage flowing into the valleys and streams of central Israel. In short, the Palestinian Authority is using water as a weapon against the State of Israel. It is not interested in practical solutions to solve the Palestinian people’s water shortages, but rather perpetuation of the shortages and the besmirching of Israel.

Sewage Reservoir Floods in Gaza, Killing 5By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSMARCH 28, 2007Continue reading the main storyShare This PageShareTweetEmailMoreSaveGAZA, March 27 (AP) — An earthen embankment around a sewage reservoir that was filled to capacity collapsed Tuesday, and officials said it spewed a “tsunami” of waste and mud that killed five people and forced residents to flee Umm Naser, a village in the northern Gaza Strip.

One local official blamed the collapse on shoddy infrastructure, and United Nations officials said they had warned of such a catastrophe for more than two years.

Emergency workers traveled among the houses on flat-bottomed boats, and chickens fled their coops to perch high on power lines. The stench of sewage mixed with mud and dead animals caused people to cover their mouths.

As to Noor Zahi Salman’s parents being from Afghanistan, it is now being reported that her parents are (late father was, mother is) actually PALESTINIAN, having come to America and settling in California in the 1970s from the city of RAMALLAH in the WEST BANK. You have to bear in mind that when the apartment in Fort Pierce, Florida was searched, a book entitled “Being Palestinian Makes Me Smile” was among the things found. Noor being of Palestinian parentage could explain their having such a book. Adding Palestinians to the mix would of course add yet another dimension to this whole matter!

Officers believe Mateen was looking at one park in particular: Downtown Disney.Downtown Disney is billed as an 'eclectic mix of unique boutiques, one-of-a-kind eateries and jaw-dropping entertainment that will have you wondering where the day went.'There is no bag check or metal detector to get in.The other four parks at Disney World - Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Epcot - all have metal detectors.Walt Disney World has yet to comment on this report.====Cole will probably explain that he had a thing about mice, thus the trips to Saudi Arabia funded by his Islamic buddy in Orlanda had NOTHING to do with Islamic Terrorism.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3641895/FBI-raid-Orlando-gunman-s-laws-agents-California-home-Omar-Mateen-s-wife-revealed-known-ISIS-fanatic-s-plans-advance.html#ixzz4Bc28xNQR Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Still, WiO? You haven't even answered those questions I asked you last time. Does that denote a lack of commitment to the cause on your part?

Poor, WiO, he has his panties in a twist because I find suspect unverified charges made by a particular IDF general. Oh, and the fact that I call bullshit when I see protesting Palestinian kids shot by the IDF but don't see the same thing happen to settler kids indulging in the same acts all of which WiO evidently applauds and finds amusing. And of course, because I call Gaza an open air prison, a simple statement of fact. For this, I am accused of ‘supporting’ Hamas. Evidently, old WiO is simply not prepared to have anyone call him on the bullshit he spouts here daily. Poor baby.

Now, that Palestinian preacher WiO put up the quote from really sounds like a prick, of course he didn't bother to put up a link so the story might have come from General Mordecai. But regardless, it sounds bad, certainly not anything any Jewish rabbi might say. Oh wait...

Israeli Army Chief of Staff Condemned for Opposition to Needless Killings

Amid ongoing condemnation of Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, who last month publicly declared “I don’t want a soldier to empty a magazine on a girl with scissors,” Israel’s chief Sepherdic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef urged soldiers to ignore the Army Chief’s orders, as well as court rulings, and just kill any “armed Palestinians” they find.

Yosef argued that it was a religious imperative for all Jews to kill armed enemies and to be unconcerned with the rulings of the High Court or other officials, urging that the killings would serve as a deterrent.

Damn, WiO, ever thought of becoming a rabbi?

and

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Says non-Jews Forbidden From Living in the Land of Israel

Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef argues that Jewish law prohibits non-Jews from living in Israel unless they have accepted Noachide laws, adding that some non-Jews live in Israel to serve the Jewish population…

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.711199

Some Palestinian preachers and some Israeli rabbis. Same shit. Different tribes.

It is not a slip. There were no Israelis that moved into Palestine. They were European and Russian Jews. They defined the piece that they carved out of Palestine and called it the “Jewish “ State of Israel. The European Jews justified the taking by saying it was the ancient state of the “Jews” and they were moving in because they were “Jews”. They did not say, we are here because we are Poles or Russians. The Jewish Stae of Israel declared to the World that any “Jew” from anywhere had a right to come to Israel, not because they were anything else except Jews.

Are you so dense, so stupid that you think they would not notice that they were Jews takin their land and water?

You have told us a thousand times that Jews had a right to go there and Palestinians were fake because they are not Jews.

Ron Huldai, the mayor of Tel Aviv, reacted with enormous sadness to Thursday’s terrorist attack on the Sarona Market restaurant district in Tel Aviv, which left 4 dead, committed by a teenagers from the Occupied Palestinian West Bank. But he then went on to put the attack in context. This kind of violence, he said, results from the Israeli Occupation, a Peculiar Institution unlike any other in the world.Huldai said,““We, as a state, are the only ones in the world with another people living among us under our occupation, denying them any civil rights . . . The problem is that when there is no terrorism, no one talks about [the occupation] . . .Nobody has the guts to take a step towards trying to make some kind of [final status] arrangement. We are 49 years into an occupation that I was a participant in, and I recognize the reality and know that leaders with courage just say things.”Contextualizing is forbidden by the Zionist right wing, which maintains that all violence against Jews is the result of mindless Antisemitism and to attempt to explain such attacks is to condone them. This kind of argumentation from the Right is of course essentially fascist, since it forbids reasoning and demands acquiescence to a nationalist imperative; it also demonizes all Others and exalts the ethnicity of the Self as innocent suffering martyr.

Palestine was occupied by the British Empire at the end of World War I and ruled by London until 1948.

The Palestinians were under occupation. Moreover, in 1917 just before that occupation began, the British government in its notorious colonial Balfour Declaration promised to create a homeland for Jews in the midst of Palestine.

The hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were not consulted by the British about this plan for bringing in thousands of foreign immigrants (just as French colonial authorities did not consult the Algerians about bringing in colonists from Malta, Italy and elsewhere, and from southern France).

Attacks on Jews in Palestine during the British Mandate were in fact a protest against occupation (sometimes they had economic motives). What the Palestinians could not imagine is that the British and the Jewish immigrants would deprive them of their country entirely (a country promised by the League of Nations and the 1939 British white paper) and turn them into stateless refugees, i.e. into flotsam on the waves of history rather than human beings with rights.

Still, WiO? You haven't even answered those questions I asked you last time. Does that denote a lack of commitment to the cause on your part?

Poor, WiO, he has his panties in a twist because I find suspect unverified charges made by a particular IDF general. Oh, and the fact that I call bullshit when I see protesting Palestinian kids shot by the IDF but don't see the same thing happen to settler kids indulging in the same acts all of which WiO evidently applauds and finds amusing. And of course, because I call Gaza an open air prison, a simple statement of fact. For this, I am accused of ‘supporting’ Hamas. Evidently, old WiO is simply not prepared to have anyone call him on the bullshit he spouts here daily. Poor baby.

Now, that Palestinian preacher WiO put up the quote from really sounds like a prick, of course he didn't bother to put up a link so the story might have come from General Mordecai. But regardless, it sounds bad, certainly not anything any Jewish rabbi might say. Oh wait...

I noticed that I destroyed your nonsense and you ignored the fake palestinian ballistics...

the "boys" were not shot from behind as you alleged.

you failed to mention what happened to the video from 1338 to 1345 to 1458

Occupiers always generate and are the recipients of violence. Most fair minded people feel that the occupiers had it coming. No one felt sympathy for the Nazi occupation forces getting blown up by the French Underground.

Do you want me to put up more videos of the IDF shooting Palestinian rock throwers, asshole. They are all over the internet. You didn't seem to have any trouble finding the one in question? Which brings up another point.

It was you that put that video up. You even laughed about it. Now, you are complaining about it? Damn, you are stupid.

the "boys" were not shot from behind as you alleged

To be clear, I said one was shot in the back. But who gives a shit whether they were shot in the front or the back? They are both dead and you concentrate in minutiae. What don't you get about that?

More important than your efforts to devote is my inability to find any videos of the IDF shootings of Israeli or Settler rock throwers. Why don't you put up a few of those.

Meanwhile, Yariv Aharoni of the Jerusalem Periphery Forum said he felt the Civil Administration was dismissive of information he had provided it with regard to illegal Palestinian construction.

“It’s because of you that the Palestinian Authority is building a terrorist state under our noses,” he said.

Separately, Johannes Hahn, commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, visited the West Bank on Tuesday, and together with PA officials, inaugurated a new EU-funded road at Khirbat Um al Lahem in Area C near Jerusalem.

Do you want me to put up more videos of the IDF shooting Palestinian rock throwers, asshole. They are all over the internet. You didn't seem to have any trouble finding the one in question? Which brings up another point.

World Bank says allowing Palestinians to use the 61% of the West Bank under full Israeli control would boost the economy.

Israel's control of a huge swath of the West Bank is costing the Palestinian economy $3.4bn (£2.1bn) a year, or 35% of its GDP, according to a report from the World Bank.

Restrictions on Palestinian access and movement within Area C, the 61% of the West Bank that is under full Israeli military control, is stunting the Palestinian economy, says the report. Area C and the Future of the Palestinian Economy, published on Tuesday, is the first comprehensive study of the potential impact of land restrictions in the region, according to the World Bank.

"Unleashing the potential from that 'restricted land' … and allowing Palestinians to put these resources to work, would provide whole new areas of economic activity and set the economy on the path to sustainable growth," said Mariam Sherman of the World Bank.

About 180,000 Palestinians, or 6.6% of the population, live in Area C, the report says. Most Palestinians live in Area A, which is under full Palestinian control, and Area B, which is under shared Palestinian and Israeli control.

Agriculture would be massively boosted if restrictions on access and water supply were eased, the report says. Most of the farmland in Area C belongs to Palestinians, 326,400 dunams (80620 acres), compared with 187,000 dunams that are attached to Israeli settlements. All Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law, are situated in Area C.

Access to the Dead Sea would provide opportunities for mineral extraction and tourism. The Palestinian economy could earn $918m (£571m), 9% of 2011 GDP, if minerals such as potash and bromine were harvested from the Dead Sea. The Palestinian tourism sector could be boosted by $126m (£78m) annually or 1% of GDP, by creating Dead Sea hotel resorts, similar to those in Israel and Jordan.

"Access to Area C will go a long way to solving Palestinian economic problems," said Sherman. "The alternative is bleak. Without the ability to utilise the potential of Area C, the economic space will remain fragmented and stunted. Lifting multiple restrictions could transform the economy and substantially improve prospects for sustained growth."

A former classmate recalled that Mateen seemed like a “regular dude” until the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

“At first, I was surprised … like, damn bro, I rode the bus with that kid,” said Robert Zirkle, 29, who attended Martin County High School in Stuart, Fla. “But then I got remembering and thinking … he was crazy then, but nobody connected the dots.

“He started acting crazy, joking around the fact that 9/11 happened, making plane noises on the school bus and pretending he was slamming into the building,” said Zirkle, who now lives in Johnston City, Tenn., where he is a manager at a McDonald’s.

“He was happy that Americans were dying. He made that very clear. I don’t know if he was always a Muslim radical, but he was excited, hyped up. We were all like, ‘What are you talking about?’”

Zirkle, who was a freshman at the time, said he and other students threatened Mateen to get him to stop. “We told him if he didn’t stop making noises, we were going to beat him up.”

“He was really out there,” he said of Mateen, who attended the Spectrum Alternative School in Stuart.

“He had no friends. He had people who were cordial with him or would ask him how he was doing. Only a few people spoke to him. I was one of the few who would. He was a Seinfeld kind of guy.”

Zirkle said he had not kept in touch with Mateen since high school and had mostly forgotten him until this weekend. On Sunday, he said, his memories were jogged as he and his former classmates gathered on Facebook chat to share stories of Mateen, along with his high school yearbook photo.

“Hamas does not care about the lives of Palestinians, does not care about the lives of Israelis, or Americans; they don’t care about their own lives,” Yousef said. “They consider dying for sake of their ideology a way of worship.”

When asked about how Hamas could peacefully live together with Israel, Yousef said that option is not on the table for the organization – because they are aiming for more than just Israel.

via Times of Israel:

“Hamas is not seeking coexistence and compromise; Hamas is seeking conquest,” he added. “The destruction of the state of Israel is not the Hamas’ final destination.”

Hamas, Yousef asserted, wants to build an Islamic state “on the rubble of every other civilization.”

*************

There I think you have the root of the matter, and what Quirk & Company cannot bring themselves to acknowledge.

I am ruling that Quirk is non compos mentis, is unable to make adequate moral distinctions, is not responsible for his behavior, and is remanded to the psychiatric ward of St. Mary's Hospital for further observation and evaluation.

When the response to terrorism is viewed as less acceptable than terrorism itself, it’s a welcome mat for more.

Sometimes I wonder if two Israelis were sitting in a café in Ramallah or Gaza City and suddenly without warning started shooting indiscriminately at Palestinian Arabs, murdering them in cold blood, what might world reaction be to such horror?

On second thought maybe it’s not such a good idea to wonder such things.

In the past few days, we’ve witnessed unspeakable acts of brutality perpetrated by Muslims against non-Muslim nationals, principally American, French, Canadian and Israeli. The carnage began last Wednesday night when two “Palestinian” Muslim gunmen drew automatic weapons in a posh Tel Aviv café and began shooting everyone in sight. Four Israeli civilians, including two women were murdered in that attack to revolting cheers of Gazan and West Bank Muslims.

That bestial incident was followed by the largest act of mass murder ever committed by a lone gunman in the U.S. The attack by an ISIS inspired gunman at an Orlando night club claimed the lives of at least 49, with the death toll likely to climb as several of the wounded remain in critical condition. Barely a day later, a Muslim terrorist stabbed a French police chief to death in the town of Magnanville while chanting Allahuakbar. He then proceeded to torture to death the man’s wife in front of their toddler son. And yesterday in the Philippines, Muslims belonging to the Islamist Abu Sayyaf terrorist group beheaded a Canadian national after their ransom demands for his release were not met.

But the victims of Islamist terror and barbarism have not been limited to Westerners or those whose values are otherwise rooted in the Judeo-Christian faith. Hindus too have recently come under attack in the Indian subcontinent.

In Bangladesh, Muslims, who constitute 90% of the population, have carried out a series of deadly attacks targeting Hindus, Christians, gay rights activists and secularists. The most recent victim, named Nitya Ranjan Pandey, was an elderly Hindu monastery worker who was hacked to death. His decapitated body was found in a rice field. A few days prior to that gruesome discovery, another Hindu, a 69-year old priest, was found hacked to death. Hindus, who constitute roughly 9% of the population, have always been victims of discrimination in Bangladesh but oppression by the Muslim majority has worsened in recent years.

Since February 2015, at least 30 people, mostly Hindus, have been murdered in sectarian violence committed by Muslims, with many of the victims butchered with machetes. ISIS and Al-Qaida have claimed responsibility for these attacks but Bangladeshi authorities have placed much of the blame on local Islamists and opposition parties, including the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party (BNP). Police forces have responded with an oppressive crackdown and mass arrests, over 8,000 since this past Friday.

Following Pandey’s death, xenophobic Bangladeshi authorities, mired in a convoluted mix of conspiracy, anti-Semitism and paranoia, absurdly blamed Israel’s Mossad for the recent surge in anti-Hindu violence and gruesome murders. The government accused Mossad operatives of collaborating with the BNP and local Islamists, including the outlawed Jamaatul Mujahedin organization, noting that the “killings are part of a national and international conspiracy,” and that “those who are carrying out these incidents are communicating with Mossad.”

As if to underscore this point, On May 15, Bangladeshi police arrested a BNP politician who had the temerity to meet and shake hands with a low-level Israeli political figure in neighboring India. The two politicians, Aslam Chowdhury of the BNP and Mendi N. Safadi of the Israeli Likud party exchanged courteous greetings and handshakes during their informal meeting. Safadi then posted a photo of the two on his Facebook page which prompted outrage across the Bangladeshi political spectrum.

Days after his arrest, Chowdhury was charged with sedition against the state. Police officials announced that, “initial investigations found evidence of conspiracy with the leaders of Israel's Likud party to destabilize the country in an effort to damage the government's image.”

There was of course no investigation and the entire affair, from arrest to formal charging was an absolute sham and a mockery of due process. Instead of addressing the root cause of the Islamist murder spree, Bangladeshi officials have chosen to blame the Mossad, which is synonymous with Jews. There is not a single Jewish soul living in Bangladesh and the country is thousands of miles from Israel but no matter, the Jews are somehow to blame for the murder of Hindus by Muslims.

Despite its deeply ingrained xenophobia and medieval penal system, western governments consider Bangladesh to be a “moderate” Muslim nation. However, the government’s policy of deflection is only contributing to the worsening situation for minorities. In the meantime, while the Bangladeshi government conjures up conspiracy theories involving the Israel, Jews and the Mossad, Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh continue to be the targets of an orchestrated Islamist campaign of terror and brutality.

I am ruling that Quirk is non compos mentis..., is unable to make adequate moral distinctions...

Moral distinctions?

WiO has already said he is fine with the IDF shooting Palestinian demonstrators from a distance. In fact, he justifies the killing of those demonstrators. Can you give me a LOL?

Now, the odd thing is he says Anytime I see a violent protester being shot is a good day; yet, he seems to make a distinction between Palestinian and Israeli 'protesters' though he doesn't seem to have the balls to come out and say it thus giving the impression that he is simply an amoral racist prick willing to see Palestinian teens shot down in the street for protesting but is unwilling to have Israeli settler youth shot down for the same acts.

So, my question to you...

Are you, like WiO, an amoral racist prick?

Are you willing to see those Palestinian protesters shot down in the street? Do you enjoy it as much as WiO?

Do you think Israeli settler youth should be shot down in the streets for using the same protesting tactics the Palestinians do?

If not, why not?

You are the one that brought up the concept of moral distinctions. Let's see just what you are made of.

"Are you willing to see those Palestinian protesters shot down in the street?"

It all depends on the situation at hand. I haven't followed the incident you have been arguing about....these things have been going on all my life and trying to micro-judge each incident would drive a sane man mad.

"Do you think Israeli settler youth should be shot down in the streets for using the same protesting tactics the Palestinians do?"

Again, it all depends on the situation at hand and what tactics are being used.

If there is an imminent danger to human life is generally thought to be a reasonable standard to apply.

I do recall Israel had to build a border wall to keep out the 'Palestinian' suicide bombers,etc.

I do believe both Hamas (The Hamas Charter) and the West Bankers are genocidal in intent, misogynist, racist, apartheidic (?), homophobic and do not deserve a 'state' for those reasons.

They wish to wipe out the Israelis and impose Sharia Law, and I think any American ought to be totally against that.

'It all depends' doesn't really do it now does it? Not when we are dealing with 'moral distinctions' regarding certain specific actions.

Here is the video WiO put up. It's short. Let me know what you think of the IDF actions.

https://www.rt.com/news/164924-israel-teenagers-war-crime/

Now, WiO says that at one point the boys were throwing stones. Does that justify the shootings you see on the video? Does anything justify them?

If you say yes the shootings were justified, should the IDF do the same thing, fire live ammunition at settler youth doing exactly the same thing as the Palestinian teens were doing? And don't give me the bullshit about 'it depends'. I said the two groups were doing exactly the same thing.

The discussion I have been having with WiO isn't about which side is most at fault in Israel/Palestine. It ain't about Hamas. It ain't about Muslim fanaticism in Bangladesh or Hindus currently killing Muslims in India.

You spout about all of this shit but you avoid the question WiO and I have been having for the last week. It's a very specific question.

1. It deals with the morality of the IDF practice of shooting protesters with live ammunition.

and

2. The film I put up above deals with shootings when the protesting had stopped and the victims were just walking around and presenting no immediate danger to anyone.

Knowing that you lack the ability to scroll up, I will also put a copy of the link here...

https://www.rt.com/news/164924-israel-teenagers-war-crime/

The films is short and shouldn't tax your attention span too much. Look at it.

Then tell me

1. Is the IDF shooting of the 2 boys justified? Assume they were throwing stones earlier as WiO posits. Are the shootings justified?

2. Is you say yes the shootings were justified, should the IDF do the same thing, fire live ammunition at settler youth doing exactly the same thing as the Palestinian teens were doing? And don't give me the bullshit about 'it depends'. I said the two groups were doing exactly the same thing.

Should the IDF fire on the Israeli settlers?

This is a simple yes or no situation regardless of how you try to spin it.

It requires an answer in line with your morality and values. I'm interested in what those are.

Doug regularly drops off stuff here like that link above. Not even directed to any particular person. Always insinuating but never really stating anything. Posting links but rarely commenting on them. Never actually jumping in and stating his position. Having to infer wears you out after a time.

As I recall, he was not like that in the past. He used to be kind of balsy and opinionated. You always knew where he stood on an issue. You didn't have to infer it. He told you. I didn't always agree with him but I respected him for his opinions. Now, well...

According to FBI statistics, you are far more likely to be beaten to death by someone's fists than you are to be killed with a rifle.

If the cosmetic features used to define an “assault weapon” in the 1994 law strike you as really stupid ways to define an “assault weapon,” it’s because the 1994 law was a stupid law with stupid definitions written by stupid people. And not only was it a stupid law, it was a stupid law that didn’t even accomplish its stated goal. How do we know? Because today, more than a decade after the law’s expiration, the number of people murdered by rifles is 36 percent lower than it was during the last full year the assault weapons ban was in effect.

The law expired in September of 2004, making 2003 the last full calendar year in which the law was in effect. According to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) crime statistics, 390 people were murdered with rifles in 2003, making rifles the weapon of choice in 2.7 percent of murders that year. But in 2014, more than a decade after these vile weapons of war flooded American streets, the number of rifle murders surely skyrocketed, right?

Not so much. Quite the opposite. In 2014, the most recent year for which detailed FBI data are available, rifles were used in 248 murders. And not only are rifles used in far fewer murders over a decade following the expiration of the 1994 gun ban, they’re also used in a smaller percentage of homicides. In 2003, when the gun ban was in full effect, rifles were used in nearly 3 percent of murders. In 2014, they were used in barely 2 percent.

That’s the exact opposite of what gun banners said should happen. After the assault weapons ban, guns were supposed to flood the streets and just start killing people. Crime was supposed to skyrocket. But that’s not what happened. Yes, Americans bought a ton of rifles after the law expired, but rather than going up, the number of homicides in which rifles were used drastically fell. There were way more guns, but way less crime.

Are you ready for a mind-blowing statistic? In 2014, you were six times more likely to be murdered with a knife than you were with a rifle. Knives were the weapon of choice in 1,567 murders in 2014, according to the FBI. It gets crazier. You were also nearly three times more likely to be killed by someone’s fists or feet than you were to be murdered with a rifle. In 2014, 660 people were murdered with what the FBI calls “personal weapons”–hands, fists, feet–compared to 248 with rifles.

In the United States, knives are more deadly than rifles. So are fists. And feet. This is not my opinion. It is an incontrovertible fact. And it’s a fact that highlights a point that far too many people refuse to acknowledge: the human desire to kill is far more deadly than any weapon. Weapons do not of their own volition and agency decide to kill people. That requires human intervention. Humans hell-bent on death and destruction will get their hands on whatever tools they need to wreak their desired havoc. Restricting the use of those tools by innocent people who only want to protect themselves and their families is delusional madness.

Yet here we are. Rather than blaming individuals and ideologies, the leading lights of American society have decided to demonize inanimate objects. Despite the fact that the terrorist in Orlando was a radical jihadi who pledged allegiance to ISIS, progressives have decided to blame the NRA for what happened. Even though the terrorist was registered to vote as a Democrat, his fellow Democrats have decided that Republicans are the true culprits....

The Department of Homeland Security has published a pamphlet full of tips for dealing with a terrorist with a gun who wants to kill you.

Their first advice is to run away. Of course, if you are unarmed in a crowded room, or the gunman is by the door, he will shoot you dead. A pity you didn't have a gun to defend yourself!

The second piece of advice is to hide under a desk. If the gunman doesn't look under desks, you may not die. That presumes you are in a place with desks, and you do not have a gun to protect yourself.

DHS next advises you to block doors with furniture. Of course, a gunman could shoot his way in, taking his time if you don't have a gun to defend yourself.

DHS also advises you to turn off the lights in the room. That may stop the gunman!

Then DHS says you should curl into a ball to make yourself a small a target as possible. Yes, you should curl into a ball. Of course at that point you cannot run and the gunman can simply come up to you and shoot you, since you don't have a gun.

Another option, says the DHS, is to throw books and coffee cups at the gunman! If these are not available, several unarmed people can attack the gunman. Of course, since the gunman is the only one with a gun, several of you may die in the attempt.

And lastly, you can attempt to attack the gunman with a baseball bat, if you can find a baseball to attack the gunman with or are fortunate enough to be the victim of terrorism on a baseball field near a fully stocked dugout. Of course, if he has a gun and you only have a baseball bat, your chances are not good.

Or, instead of doing the above goofy things and probably dying, if you have a gun you could protect yourself. The great thing about concealed carry is that you can usually surprise a gunman because he will not know who is armed. That's why gunmen like to commit massacres in "gunfree" zones because they know that law abiding citizens will obey and be defenceless while they won't. But carrying a gun is not an option the DHS literature offers; only throwing coffee cups and curling into a ball.

A new Indian-American lobby on Tuesday convened a powerful group of Republicans — including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — in a Washington hotel as it pledged to raise millions in campaign cash for GOP candidates this cycle.

The Republican Hindu Coalition (RHC) held its public launch at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, gathering McConnell and Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). The RHC’s founder, Chicago-based businessman Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar, has promised to personally donate at least $2 million to Republicans running for office in 2016, and the coalition aims to give at least $10 million to GOP candidates this cycle.

Ayotte, Portman and Johnson are all facing tough re-election battles in 2016.

Influential House members, including Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also attended.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the honorary chairman of the RHC, entered the ballroom with Kumar.

"I think launching an organization like the RHC could literally change history," Gingrich told the audience. Gingrich said the U.S. and India face a common enemy in radical jihadists, adding he had grave concerns about the dangers of Pakistan....

Ground forces backed by Iraqi and US-led coalition air strikes alternated barrages of artillery fire with attempts to move forward in street battles, engaging with light weapons sometimes only metres (yards) away from IS fighters.

Fallujah is a medium-sized, densely built-up town that lies only 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad. It is one of the last two major Iraqi cities IS controls, the other being Mosul.

US forces suffered some of their worst losses since the Vietnam War when they battled one of IS's previous incarnations in the city in 2004 and it is one of the jihadists' most emblematic bastions.

Going against US advice to focus efforts on the northern city of Mosul, Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced an offensive to retake Fallujah in late May.

The advance of pro-government forces has since been slow, with Fallujah's status as a symbolic IS stronghold and a tight siege by Iraqi forces ensuring holdout jihadists have few options other than fighting to the death.

Progress against the massively outnumbered jihadists has also been hampered by IS's systematic use of civilians as human shields.

According to the International Organization for Migration, at least 43,000 people have been displaced since the start of the operation more than three weeks ago.

But most of them were fleeing IS rule in outlying areas while residents of central Fallujah have found it very difficult to escape.

Attempting to do so has proven extremely dangerous, with roadside bombs and IS gunmen killing dozens of civilians in recent days.

The Iraqi army opened a corridor last week to facilitate the flow of civilians seeking to leave.

It has allowed thousands to escape but remains hard to reach from some neighbourhoods and dangerous to use.

On Tuesday, a man was killed and several other people wounded when an explosive device went off just metres away from the end of the corridor, where government forces receive fleeing civilians, the Norwegian Refugee Council reported.

"Let's be absolutely clear: there is no safe passage out of Fallujah to speak of," NRC country director Nasr Muflahi said in a statement.

Thousands of men among those trying to flee were being held for screening by pro-government forces and allegations of abuses were mounting.

In the displacement camps of nearby Amriyat al-Fallujah, those men who made it through the screening said Shiite militiamen from the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary umbrella group were torturing suspects.

A 35-year-old man from an area just west of Fallujah displayed deep cuts on his wrists.

"That's from having my hands cuffed for four days, with nothing to eat or drink," he said.

"When they eventually pushed me off a moving pick-up truck, I was so exhausted I didn't even feel anything," he said.

Abadi's office has promised to investigate allegations of abuses committed by the security forces during the operation.

Fallujah and the areas around it are Sunni Muslim while the Hashed forces fighting alongside the government are dominated by Shiite militias, some of which are supported by Tehran.

Their involvement in the operation had raised fears the battle would see collective revenge against Sunni civilians.

Men who claimed to have witnessed torture by anti-IS forces told AFP that the militiamen said openly they were motivated by revenge for the Speicher massacre, when up to 1,700 mostly Shiite cadets were executed by IS near Tikrit in June 2014.

It has also been described variously as a form of traditional[6] popular protest[7] guerrilla tactic or action,[8][9] as a form of violent activism, or mode of civil disobedience[10][11] which came to prominence during the First Intifada.[12][13] At least 14 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian stone throwing, including 3 Arabs mistaken for Jews.[14] It has occasionally been imitated by activists among the Arab citizens of Israel.[7]

Stone throwing is not considered a deadly force in most countries: in the West firearms are generally not used in crowd or riot dispersals and proportionality of force is the norm, except where immediate danger to life exists.[15] Stone-throwers also employ catapults, slings and slingshots[16] armed with readily available materials at hand: stones, bricks, bottles, pebbles or ball bearings, and sometimes rats[6][17][18] or cement blocks. Slingshots are often loaded with large ball bearings instead of stones.[19][20][21] Since the 1987 uprising, the technique is favoured as one which, to foreign eyes, will invert the association of modern Israel with David, and her enemies with Goliath, by casting the Palestinians as David to Israel's Goliath,[18] Despite there having been frequent acts of protest all over the Palestinian territories, the number of shooting incidents has been less than 3%.[22] Nonetheless, the international press and media focused on the aspect of Palestinian stone-throwing, which garnered more headline attention than other violent conflicts in the world,[23][24] so that it became iconic for characterizing the uprising.

The video that Quirk references shows 12 seconds out of over an hour of video.

The 2 that were shot were in fact repeatedly using sling shots in violent protest against the IDF.

There is no evidence that the IDF used live ammo.

The bullet provided by the palesitnian autospy was suspect as it was not distorted in anyway.

Typically the IDF uses rubber bullets. Personally?

I have NO problem with shooting violent palestnians who repeatedly attack Jews with slingshots with live ammo.

I have seen the effects of dozens of "boys" showering rocks on to an Israeli check point (where the "children" had to travel hundreds of yards to get to the check point) it is lethal. Were the boys shot? Sure looks like it. But do you have any evidence that they were shot by live ammo? Rubber bullets can be lethal. I noticed no blood, surely a real bullet would have produced a spray of blood...

Regardless. Quirk feels that this is just innocent youth tossing a few pebbles. I feel that they are part of a coordinated attack on Israelis. The videos do not show by a 12 seconds total out of 1.5 hours of video. Notice the burning tire in the 3 snippet? Where did it come from. The very fact that the SECOND that they were shot they were not actively attacking means nothing.

I bet if Israel actually used live ammo as policy? Palestinian rock throwing attacks would drop dramatically

How many people have to DIE by a rock to the side of the head before people wake up and understand that this is a war.

The medieval Christian pilgrim Fabri wrote that 1483 pilgrims took care to arrive in Gaza at dusk to avoid being stoned by “the little Muslim boys”.[36] According to historian Benny Morris the practice of throwing stones at Jews is a venerable one in the Middle East, symbolic of Jewish degradation under Muslim rule. Morris quotes a 19th-century traveler: "I have seen a little fellow of six years old, with a troop of fat toddlers of only three and four, teaching [them] to throw stones at a Jew."[37] William Shaler, American Consul to Arab Algiers from 1815 to 1828, reported that the practice of Muslims throwing rocks at Jews was commonly seen.[38] The practice of Arab rioters throwing stones at Jews was seen in the 1948 Anti-Jewish Riots in Tripolitania, Libya.[39] It has been used as a weapon against colonialism in other Arab countries

And we are making war with black stones[43]So to whom will be the victory, Abraha al-Ashram or Muhammad?American will make war on us with airplanes, tanks, and dollarsAnd collaborators and incompetents and mercenariesAnd we will make war on them with the sword of Salah ad-DinAnd we will know the duration of the darknessIt is impossible to blot out the moon of the poorIt is impossible to extinguish the sun of the bereaved.[44]

According to one hadith or saying ascribed to Muhammad by Abdullah b. Mughaffal al-Muzani, the prophet of Islam proscribed stone-throwing, saying: "It neither stops a game nor inflicts injury on an enemy, but rather puts out the eye and breaks the teeth.'[45] Many Palestinians take the tradition as harking back more directly to the Peasant Revolt that broke out in the wake of the Egyptian–Ottoman War (1831–33) when Ibrahim Pasha invaded Palestine and imposed harsh taxation and conscription policies on the local fellahin.

Stone throwing played an important, if secondary role, after firearms,[47] in the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine (thawra) against the British Mandatory government. In October 1936 a Collective Punishment Ordinance was invoked to impose punitive measures on villages implicated in stone-throwing against passing vehicles. The Nablus District Commissioner Hugh Foot posted a notice warning that not only boy stone-throwers but also their fathers and guardians would be punished.[48]

British Mandatory forces shot into a milling crowd when stones were thrown at Barclays Bank in Nablus in October 1933, as Palestinian Arabs went on strike and demonstrated out of fears they would be replaced by a nation of Jewish immigrants, large numbers of whom had recently entered the country. Several protesters were wounded. On the same day, in Haifa, 4 protesters among a stone-throwing crowd swarming around a police station were killed. Similar incidents occurred in Jaffa. In all 26 Palestinian Arabs were shot dead, and a further 187 wounded as the nationwide strike was suppressed.[49] In Gaza, one British railway official was killed in 1937 when he left his car to observe stone-throwers. Another escaped 4 such attacks by showing he was not circumcised.[36] The practice was not limited to Gaza. A British police officer reflecting on the period of the thawra, remarked: "Arabs for some reason can throw a stone more accurately than anyone else in the world. They rarely miss

Resisting temptations to resort to small-arms warfare in the face of the vast military resources of the Israeli armed forces, Palestinians took to throwing stones, an improvised weapon which had deep symbolic resonances of a cultural, historical and religious kind. As a popular song at the time put it, the stone became their Kalashnikov.

mā fī khawf mā fī khawfal-ḥajar ṣār klashnikūf,('There is no fear, there is no fearFor the stone has become the Kalashnikov.')[64]

Throwers ranged from small children (alwād) to adolescent youths (shabab). The former resented being classified as children, and asserted they also were "shabab".[66] Those who were killed by Israeli fire are called martyrs (shahīd / shuhada).

According to IDFG statistics, since 2004 an average of 4,066 stone throwing incidents are observed annually. The peak year was 2005, with 4,371 incidents. The lowest incidence was registered in 2007, when 3,501 events involving the throwing of stones at soldiers and passing cars were registered.[151]

According to the Israeli police, in 2013 7,886 events of stone throwing were recorded in comparison to 18,726 of such events in 2014.[152]

In the past few days, we’ve witnessed unspeakable acts of brutality perpetrated by Muslims against non-Muslim nationals, principally American, French, Canadian and Israeli. The carnage began last Wednesday night when two “Palestinian” Muslim gunmen drew automatic weapons in a posh Tel Aviv café and began shooting everyone in sight. Four Israeli civilians, including two women were murdered in that attack to revolting cheers of Gazan and West Bank Muslims.

That bestial incident was followed by the largest act of mass murder ever committed by a lone gunman in the U.S. The attack by an ISIS inspired gunman at an Orlando night club claimed the lives of at least 49, with the death toll likely to climb as several of the wounded remain in critical condition. Barely a day later, a Muslim terrorist stabbed a French police chief to death in the town of Magnanville while chanting Allahuakbar. He then proceeded to torture to death the man’s wife in front of their toddler son. And yesterday in the Philippines, Muslims belonging to the Islamist Abu Sayyaf terrorist group beheaded a Canadian national after their ransom demands for his release were not met.

But the victims of Islamist terror and barbarism have not been limited to Westerners or those whose values are otherwise rooted in the Judeo-Christian faith.

In Bangladesh, Muslims, who constitute 90% of the population, have carried out a series of deadly attacks targeting Hindus, Christians, gay rights activists and secularists. The most recent victim, named Nitya Ranjan Pandey, was an elderly Hindu monastery worker who was hacked to death. His decapitated body was found in a rice field. A few days prior to that gruesome discovery, another Hindu, a 69-year old priest, was found hacked to death. Hindus, who constitute roughly 9% of the population, have always been victims of discrimination in Bangladesh but oppression by the Muslim majority has worsened in recent years....

....Following Pandey’s death, xenophobic Bangladeshi authorities, mired in a convoluted mix of conspiracy, anti-Semitism and paranoia, absurdly blamed Israel’s Mossad for the recent surge in anti-Hindu violence and gruesome murders. The government accused Mossad operatives of collaborating with the BNP and local Islamists, including the outlawed Jamaatul Mujahedin organization, noting that the “killings are part of a national and international conspiracy,” and that “those who are carrying out these incidents are communicating with Mossad.”....

Back in early 2009 the Wall Street Journal looked at a blip in interest rates — which was obviously, even at the time, driven by optimism about economic recovery, which unfortunately proved misplaced — and declared that the bond vigilantes were back.

Rising rates, the paper declared, were a sign that all-wise markets feared budget deficits and inflation. Soaring rates were proof that government was the problem.

Seven years on, the inflation never materialized, and interest rates all around the advanced world are at historic lows, with German 10-years having just gone negative. So the Journal has apologized for getting it all wrong, right?

Instead, we now have an editorial denouncing “money for nothing“, These low rates are not a sign that governments should build infrastructure, or that inflation is too low. They “reflect a lack of confidence in options for private investment.”

So rising rates show that government is the problem, and falling rates also show that government is the problem.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.